


Fragile Hearts

by Bright_Sea



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Backstory, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Loss, Happy Ending, M/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-14 01:47:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9151507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bright_Sea/pseuds/Bright_Sea
Summary: Yuri asks to meet Victor’s family.





	

Hand in hand, Yuri and Victor stood on a patch of soft green grass in the land that was the Novodevichy cemetery. Two tombstones sat in front of them. One saying "loving father" and the other saying "loving mother" above the day of death.

Yuri felt oddly hollow as he stared at the two stones. It was a matter of months until his and Victor’s wedding and while Yuri was happy, he was also very confused. They've been living happily together in Russia for a while. Like any couple they went on dates, argued over who's turn it was to do the dishes and just enjoyed each other's company. With the wedding coming closer they've been picking flowers, tasting cakes, trying on suits and writing invites. Everything was coming together so well. 

And then, a realization hit Yuri right in the face.

Not one letter had been made out to Victor's family.

Yuri had searched through the endless pile, coming up empty in his search.  It was then that he realized, Victor's family were a non-existent image in Yuri's life. For as long as they have been together, Victor had never introduced Yuri to a single member of his family. Nor had the coach ever mentioned them.

Once upon a time, Yuri would have never been confident enough to bring himself to question Victor's actions. He would have stayed quite and just gone with the flow. Now? Well, Yuri wasn't like that anymore. 

He confronted Victor and received his answer: two train tickets to Moscow where Victor's parents lived.

So many thoughts had swarmed Yuri’s mind leading up to the big day. He couldn’t help envisioning the two people responsible for bringing Victor Nikiforov into the world. Did Victor get his soft silvery hair from his mother? Did he share his piercing blue stare with his father? Did they live in a luxurious house like Victor? Oh, or maybe they lived in a little shack in the country away from the fuss of the bigger cities? 

Yuri’s imagination had provided so much to his curiosity as the days ticked down to the big meeting.

But Yuri wasn't expecting  _ this _ .

“Mama, Papa,” Victor spoke suddenly. “I’m sorry it’s been so long. I’ve been busy with wedding plans.” He wrapped an arm around Yuri’s waist. “I’d like you both to meet Yuri Katsuki— my fiance.”

Hesitantly Yuri bowed to the graves. 

“N...nice to meet you.”

Yuri raised from his bow and silence swept through the cemetery. A question hung in the air. A question Yuri was tingling to ask but too afraid to.

As always, Victor read his mind and the uneasiness in his fidgeting.

“I was seven,” Victor revealed softly. “My mother and father traveled a lot for their work. Sometimes they’d be gone for several weeks at a time.” Victor knelt down on the damp grass at their feet and ran his fingers over the names on the stones. “When they’d come back they’d crawl into bed with me while I was still asleep so I could wake up in their arms.”

Yuri was quiet. His eyes fixed on his fiance’s faraway blue gaze.

“One day when I woke up they weren’t there. Nor were they every day after that.”

“V...Victor...”

Victor turned his gaze away from his mother's and father’s gravestones and looked up at his fiance. Tears were burning in Yuri’s eyes and one of his hands was clenched over his chest. A small smile eased over Victor’s lips and he stood. He reached out, pulling Yuri into his arms and holding him close. 

Yuri let his tears soak into his fiance’s coat. He couldn’t stop himself. Sadness for the man in his arms and the seven-year-old version of him filled Yuri’s aching heart. 

The pain of losing one's parents...Yuri couldn’t even imagine it. 

It must have been so painful.    

Images of Victor reaching no higher than Yuri’s hip scattered through the Japanese skater’s vision. He saw a sweet little boy with a big smile and long gray hair curled up in bed with his mother at his back and his father curled against his front. The mother stroked her fingers through her son’s long hair and the father peppered his son’s cheeks in gentle kisses

They looked so happy together.

And then the figures in Yuri’s imagination began to disappear. The mother and father faded away like old ink on a stretch of parchment. Their son awoke, blue eyes meeting only the loneliness of his empty room instead of the loving smiles of his parents.

Yuri forced his eyes open, the sad look in the seven-year-old’s eyes being too much for him to witness.

“Life and love,” Victor whispered against Yuri’s head and the Japanese skater looked up at him in confusion.

“What?”

“I’ve been neglecting both for over twenty years now,” Victor explained. “I thought I lost the ability to go back to that world but then…” Victor pulled Yuri back so he could stare into his fiance’s watery eyes with his own. “...I met you, Yuri, and I remembered how to live again...how to love again.” Victor dipped down slightly. His lips were a hair’s width from Yuri’s. “Thank you.”

Yuri smiled against Victor’s lips and leaned in the rest of the way. Their lips pressed together and Yuri's hands found their way to the warmth of Victor's cheek. The ring on Yuri's finger should have felt cold against Victor's cheek but instead, it felt warm and comforting. 

Hearts of figure skaters were fragile things. They could crack with the slightest pressure and send a man falling to his knees. Victor understood this as well as anyone else. 

He also understood that with time and the right amount of care a heart could heal.

Yuri’s smile, his soft whispers to Victor in the warmth of their bed, and the gentle kisses to Victor’s face and nimble fingers brushing through his short silver hair were all the healing Victor needed— that he ever needed. 

After over 20 years of wandering the streets of St. Petersburg lost and aching, Victor had finally found the missing piece of his heart in the hands of an anxious Japanese skater he’d met at a banquette oh so very long ago.

And he was never going to let him go.

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my theories on why Victor would neglect life and love for over twenty years.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
